Ranking Floyd Patterson Above Lennox Lewis, Can It Be Justified?

[sonnyboyx2]

No, Lewis lost his WBA belt the moment he stepped in the ring with Grant for not meeting Ruiz. King wanted the belt and within months Holyfield and Ruiz were fighting for the vacant title. Do you have a source for Lewis ducking Holmes? I'm still waiting for evidence of Lewis ducking Roy Jones and Herbie Hide too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/18/sp...-s-ruling.html

If Tyson wanted Lewis why pay him step-aside money in the first place? He then vacated the belt anyway just to make sure. The money was to shut Lewis up and prevent months of legal wrangling stopping the fights Tyson and King wanted, which didn't include Lewis. And I find it hard to believe you'd accept Lewis' version of events on anything.

Holmes autobiography - Against the Odds... tells about Lewis not wanting anything to do with Holmes.

Herbie Hide was on BBC TV after each of his fights shouting for a Lewis fight as was his promoter Barry Hearns

Roy Jones - ive put up links but you don't accept them

Mike Tyson wanted to "UNIFY" the Heavyweight Titles, that was his goal and by fighting Bruce Seldon it was another arrow to his bow, Don King offered Lewis $13.5 million to fight Tyson as Lewis was the WBC No1 contender.. Lewis could easily have accepted.. i would bet almost every heavyweight who ever laced on a pair of gloves would have accepted $13.5 million and a title fight instead of $4 million step-a-side money, the reason they paid step-a-side money was so that they could keep the WBC belt in their quest to unify the title.. Lewis had just been poleaxed by Oliver McCall who was nothing more than a sparring bag for Tyson then Lewis looked shyte against two tomato-cans in Lionel Butler & Justin Fortune.. what was there to be afraid of for Mike Tyson.. Lewis had a chance of a career highest purse and a world title fight and said "No Thanks" he sold them for $4 million... do you think Floyd Patterson would have sold-out?

[Kid McCoy]

Holyfield was "Robbed" in his loss to Lewis
Tua weighed 250lb the fattest man to ever fight for the title
Ruddock was "Damaged Goods"
Mercer was robbed against Lewis
Bruno was past it and gave Lewis a boxing lesson
Klitschko was very unfortunate

Lewis was robbed in his draw with Holyfield. No one would fight Ruddock at the time (Foreman for one wasn't interested in him) and he didn't look damaged goods in his previous two fights. Mercer was not robbed. It was a close fight. Giving a boxing lesson means nothing if you aren't on your feet at the final bell. Bruno did well early against Witherspoon and Smith too before getting sparked. And George Foreman weighed 259 when he fought Holyfield so Tua is not the "fattest" challenger ever. Klitschko very unfortunate? What, that his opponent left his face looking like he'd put it in a meat grinder? Yeah, very unfortunate! lol

Anyone can spin things the way you do. Archie Moore was about 45. Machen and Maxim were washed up. Chuvalo and Bonavena were robbed. Johansson was "unfortunate" and so on. Not a very objective way of evaluating fighters.

[sonnyboyx2]

Lewis was robbed in his draw with Holyfield. No one would fight Ruddock at the time (Foreman for one wasn't interested in him) and he didn't look damaged goods in his previous two fights. Mercer was not robbed. It was a close fight. Giving a boxing lesson means nothing if you aren't on your feet at the final bell. Bruno did well early against Witherspoon and Smith too before getting sparked. And George Foreman weighed 259 when he fought Holyfield so Tua is not the "fattest" challenger ever. Klitschko very unfortunate? What, that his opponent left his face looking like he'd put it in a meat grinder? Yeah, very unfortunate! lol

Anyone can spin things the way you do. Archie Moore was about 45. Machen and Maxim were washed up. Chuvalo and Bonavena were robbed. Johansson was "unfortunate" and so on. Not a very objective way of evaluating fighters.

Lets see your case for Patterson NOT being ranked greater than Lewis... because so far you have not made one

[joseph5620]

In a HW ATG list?

Not even close IMO. Lewis should rank far ahead of Patterson.

[joseph5620]

Patterson

Muhammad Ali (twice)
George Chuvalo
Jerry Quarry (twice)
Sonny Liston (twice)
Ingo Johansson (thrice)
Henry Cooper
Archie Moore
Joey Maxim
Yvon Durelle
Roy Harris
Jimmy Ellis
Oscar Bonavena
Tommy Hurricane Jackson
--------------

Lennox Lewis

Mike Tyson
Donavan Ruddock
Ray Mercer
Evander Holyfield (twice)
Andrew Golota
Frank Bruno
Vitali Klitschko
David Tua
Hasim Rahman (twice)
Oliver McCall (twice)
Tommy Morrison
Shannon Briggs

The question was who ranks higher as a heavyweight. At least 4 of those fighters you listed for Patterson are LH. And Moore was never a great heavyweight.

[joseph5620]

McNeeley, Harris, Rademacher was all undefeated with Rademacher being the Olympic champion & Brian London being a decent fighter, none of them being as bad as Phil Jackson, Lionel Butler, Michael Grant, Frans Botha, Henry Akinwande, Justin Fortune or Zelko Mavrovic,

Patterson may well have been stripped today for avoiding Liston for so long yet Lewis avoided Ruiz for 3yrs before getting stripped, he was stripped for refusing to fight Chris Byrd & Vitali Klitschko

Are you really going to include an Olympic champion with no pro fights to support your claim for Patterson? If Lewis fought that type of opponent I would hate to read what you would say about it.

[Kid McCoy]

Lets see your case for Patterson NOT being ranked greater than Lewis... because so far you have not made one

Lewis' best wins are better than Patterson's best wins. Lewis had the better, more dominant heavyweight career. And for what it's worth, the IBRO boxing historians you always bring up have Lewis ranked 12th while Patterson is unrated. Going by accomplishments and resume, why do you think Patterson rates over Lewis?

As for everything else, it's been done to death. We don't agree. I'm beginning to think you wanted Lewis to fight guys like John Ruiz, Lamon Brewster and Herbie Hide just so you'd have another reason to trash him.

[Scott9945]

Are you really going to include an Olympic champion with no pro fights to support your claim for Patterson? If Lewis fought that type of opponent I would hate to read what you would say about it.

He lost me when he claimed that Brian London was much better than Michael Grant. What a joke. London was terrible and wouldn't go 2 rounds with Grant. He clearly has no objectivity when it comes to Lennox Lewis.

[sonnyboyx2]

Lewis' best wins are better than Patterson's best wins. Lewis had the better, more dominant heavyweight career. And for what it's worth, the IBRO boxing historians you always bring up have Lewis ranked 12th while Patterson is unrated. Going by accomplishments and resume, why do you think Patterson rates over Lewis?

As for everything else, it's been done to death. We don't agree. I'm beginning to think you wanted Lewis to fight guys like John Ruiz, Lamon Brewster and Herbie Hide just so you'd have another reason to trash him.

i was disappointed Lewis never fought Ruiz... Ruiz had been a sparring partner for Lewis in 1994 when he came over to London to fight Julius Francis and Lewis was training to fight McCall, Lewis found it almost impossible to handle the "Grappling-Hook" style of Ruiz in sparring and on the second day of training Ruiz dropped Lewis in the gym twice in 3rds, the Lewis camp got rid of John Ruiz services the next day...over the next 5yrs Ruiz fought himself into the No1 position for Lewis world title but Lewis wanted nothing to do with the man he knew he could not handle.

i could tell you about The Lewis v Lamon Brewster sparring session in 2000 but will keep that for another day because you will be shocked.

i totally disagree with you in that Lewis best wins was better than Patterson's best wins and that Lewis had the better more dominant career...are you seriously trying to make a case that Lewis was the dominant champion of the world with his prized WBC strap between 1992 to 1999 ?

Rid**** Bowe was the man from 92 to 93 when he lost it back to Holyfield who then lost to Moorer in 94 who lost to Foreman at the end of 94 with Foreman being champion to late 97

Lewis picked a belt out of the garbage can in 93 lost it in 94 then fought for a vacant belt against a guy coming out of a drug-rehab in 97 then fought a draw for the undisputed title in 99 (should have won).. He then got the decision for the undisputed title in late 99 in a rematch yet most at ringside thought he had lost. Lewis then refused to fight the No1 contenders so was stripped of the WBA belt, he then got poleaxed by a journeyman whom he handpicked to fight and regained 2 belts by winning a rematch, Lewis was then stripped of the IBF belt for refusing to fight their No1 contender. Lewis then beat a shell of Mike Tyson who was more than 12yrs past his best and had served several lengthy prison sentences. Lewis struggled to hold on to his final belt in a controversial fight with Vitali Klitschko with Lewis announcing his retirement from the sport only days before he was to be stripped of his last belt.... and you call that DOMINANT

[sonnyboyx2]

He lost me when he claimed that Brian London was much better than Michael Grant. What a joke. London was terrible and wouldn't go 2 rounds with Grant. He clearly has no objectivity when it comes to Lennox Lewis.

let me suggest that you get yourself a copy of the fight Brian London vs Henry Cooper 1964 which is both fighters in their prime and as good if not better than most domestic fights in recent years including
Benn v Eubank
Eubank vs Collins 1 & 2
Collins vs Benn
Sibson vs Kaylor